Troy Lawson visited all the day care centers he and his wife were considering for their baby, but that didn’t prevent his son from dying a mysterious death after he stopped breathing at the home of his licensed child care provider.By the time another baby boy died at the same Laguna Hills home seven years later, the ch

The scandal-scarred city of Bell may seem like a strange place to look for the next frontier of public accountability, but there it is.While the salaries of California’s public employees are now easily accessible thanks to the little city’s “corruption on steroids,” an enormous chunk of public spending is extr

The tipster who called Orange County’s fraud hotline didn’t know the name of the man who paid for lunch with a high-ranking county official, but she recognized him as a consultant who did business with county officials.“I am aware of the law about not taking anything more than a cup of coffee, and this was certainly

The best-paid public workers in the state of California are the athletic coaches at UCLA and UC Berkeley, with compensation often eclipsing $2 million a year, according to data from the state controller's office.
Orange County folks didn’t weigh in at the tippy-top of the list, but four placed in the Top 30, including former Sherif

One of Orange County's longest police shooting investigations just got a little longer, according to online court records.The Superior Court trial of Vincent Leon was scheduled to begin this week but has been delayed again until April -- nearly three years after Leon was

An Orange County Superior Court judge Tuesday criticized sheriff’s deputies for keeping secret – even from the court – a computerized system for tracking jailhouse inmates and informants.Judge Thomas Goethals lashed out after several days of testimony from jail deputies who said they were taught to keep the TRED sys

Orange County’s ban on sex offenders in parks, declared illegal by appellate judges last year, has a new backer: a proposed bill in the state Assembly that would allow cities to enforce restrictions on such criminals. The bill from state Assemblyman Bill Brough, R-Dana Point, aims to prohibit sex offenders from going to parks and be

The last time Rene “Boxer” Enriquez was paroled out of California state prison, in 1988, he ordered a hit on one person and put five bullets into another.Nevertheless, Enriquez could see his two life sentences for those murders turn into parole, yet again, in part because an Orange County prosecutor and an Anaheim police

When Orange County became the first big county to embrace Laura’s Law last year – empowering officials to order severely mentally ill people into treatment, even against their wishes – it was denounced as an attack on individual freedom by some, and praised as potential salvation by others.But in its first four mont

Lori Whalen owed $3,845.48 in unpaid taxes and if she didn’t pay immediately, the caller warned, she could lose her Las Flores home, business and retirement savings.A federal judge could enlarge her debt to $72,000 and require payment within a week, the caller said; her assets could be frozen, her possessions auctioned off one

Out-of-state interests illegally funneled $200,000 into the 2012 Irvine City Council race, according to California’s elections watchdog agency.The money was part of conservatives’ successful bid to wrest majority control of the council – a majority that continues today. Democrats had controlled the council since 200

Sales taxes are gushing into many city coffers in Orange County – surpassing the totals even at the height of the financial boom.Buena Park, which spiffed up its mall a decade ago with a Walmart, Bed Bath & Beyond and Ross Dress for Less (and a $3.2 million public investment), has seen sales tax revenue double. So has Seal

The Register's investigations team routinely works with citizen whistleblowers and sensitive information. And you, the whistleblower, perform a critical role in shining a spotlight on waste and abuse of the public's trust. We don't necessarily need you to go on the record; but we do need you to point us in the right direction, help us find publi

It was one thing when the faithful at St. Edward the Confessor Catholic Church raised $8 million to build a new parish center, then heard little more about the project.But when they learned that the Diocese of Orange planned a $3 million renovation of their beloved church sanctuary – perched on a Dana Point precipice and design

A two-vote lead by Andrew Do over Lou Correa in the Orange County Board of Supervisors 1st District race grew to 239 on Wednesday, but election officials have more ballots to count before results are final.“It’s going to be interesting to see who’s going to be on offense and who’s going to be on defense,&rdquo